TASK 1 : CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Inclusive education is an education system where children with and without disabilities
learn together in a same classroom. Some researches show that when a child with disabilities
attend classes alongside peers who do not have disabilities, good things happen. From
Malaysian context, “Inclusive Education Programme” means an educational programme for a
pupil with special educational needs which is attended by a pupil with special educational
needs together with other normal pupils in the same class in a government school or
government-aided school (Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsaan, 2012).

Inclusive education in Malaysia was initially started on 2012 where the projection of
the program was only involving 7.5% of Special education pupils in both primary and
secondary school but the number goes on proportionally with the years and Ministry Of
Education plans to have at least 75% of special education pupils enrolled in inclusive
programme by 2025.There are series of initiatives that had and will be implemented by the
government relating to this inclusive education programme and it comes in three waves which
are Wave 1(2013-2015), Wave 2(2016-2020) and Wave 3 (2021-2025).

According to Ministry of education Malaysia, we are facing the ‘Second Wave’ phase
which its implementation starting from 2016 to 2020. In order to ensure the smoothness of this
phase, ministry of education had put some effort by receiving help from both, government and
non-government bodies (NGO).

From government sides, Ministry of Education had plan to identify special education
needs and intervening early and providing healthcare support. This includes scale up provision
of early intervention services, increase inclusion programmes within mainstream preschool
settings, set and improve the standard of support services for children with Special Education,
and collaborate with the Ministry of Health to fast track and formalise the process of early
diagnosis of special needs children.

On the other hand, Bahagian Pendidikan Guru (BPG) had been given responsibility to
create a channel of trained teacher and other specialist in order to make this programme do-
able. The government body will further strengthening teacher training programmes to improve
the implementation of the Individualised Education Plan(IEP) and also they will collaborate
with the Ministry of Health to establish a multi-disciplinary group made up of doctors, therapist
and other specialist to train teachers. The Ministry will also support and train the management
of schools that volunteer for inclusive education programmes.
 Ministry of education had also offered robust support of infrastructure and financial for
this programme. These support had been given to further strengthen relationships with other
organisations, such as NGOs, international organisations, private sector organisations, and
government agencies. It also had been given to develop joint workshops and programmes for
students, and professional services from specialists such as audiologists and occupational
therapists. Besides that, the Ministry also will explore further cooperation with the Ministry of
Human Resources to find work placements for special education needs graduates. The
Ministry will also work towards the goal of ensuring that community volunteer support is
available to all schools during this wave. On the infrastructure front, the target is to have all
schools upgraded with disabled-friendly facilities by 2020 and to leverage technology to boost
the learning of special education needs students

Other than that, following pilot buddy programmes in Wave 1, the Malaysia Ministry Of
Education aims to roll out buddy clubs in every inclusive school, where every special education
needs student will be paired with another student from the same school. It will also continue
its efforts to scale up the integrated communications campaign to raise awareness about
special education needs students. The Ministry will also launch an initiative to create a training
module for educational management for community centres and utilise a “train the trainer”
model to train community centre teachers.

Though the Special Education Department of the ministry holds the primary
responsibility to provide education for children with disabilities in Malaysia, the Performance
Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) in the Prime Minister’s Department is tasked to
oversee the implementation and to assess its progress in relation to the policies on the
education of children with disabilities.

The other government agency that looks into providing students with disabilities is the
Women, Family and Community Development Ministry. Through its welfare department,
learning and skills training services are implemented in collaboration with non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) and community-based rehabilitation centres.

From non-governmental bodies (NGO), NGOs and the private sector play an important
role too in this field of education as there are non-profit learning and care centres (e.g
Malaysian Care Community Services, Kiwanis Centre ) that provide early intervention,
learning, rehabilitation and training programmes for children with disabilities. This role fills an
important gap in the public system.

Besides that, The National Early Childhood Intervention Council actively campaigns
and raises the awareness of the need for parents and teachers to identify children with
disabilities so that early intervention can take place to assist them.
 To conclude, there are plenty of plan and action had been implemented by both,
government and non-government bodies regarding inclusive education programme. Strategic
partnerships comprising the families and communities, local and national NGOs, international
organisations and governments to create a society of respect and acceptance for children with
disabilities are crucial. All of these efforts are being poured just to make sure the equality in
education being applied to all Malaysians regardless of race, skin colour and
abilities/disabilities in the hopes of none of the Malaysians being left out in education.
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